The regional small supermarket Kings Food Market celebrated the grand re-opening of its North Hoboken location, 1212 Shipyard Lane, by cutting a ribbon made of pasta last week. The location has recently acquired 2,500 more square feet as part of a growing expansion. A brick pizza oven was added along with an expanded produce section, a grain bar, and freshly made sushi.

While the downtown Kings location (325 River St.) was positioned for growth from the start, the uptown location has worked to understand their customers and make expansion improvements accordingly, said Kings representatives. This included making the aisle space big enough to fit double-wide strollers for young local families.

During the ceremony, a $2,500 check was presented to the Hoboken Homeless Shelter, which is said to fund 1,300 warm meals for the homeless.

Executive director of the shelter Jaclyn Cherubini and long-time volunteer Dinorah Vargas were there to collect the check on behalf of the shelter.

Expanding the footprint

Also present at the opening was Kings CEO and President Judy Spires. Spires has been in the supermarket business since the early days of being a cashier. She moved from the Philadelphia area two and half years ago for the opportunity with Kings.

“We are absolutely thrilled to have expanded,” said Spires. “With a town as burgeoning as Hoboken, we had to burgeon with it.”

Spires also added that in the next five years, the store is expected to double in size.

Brick oven pizza in minutes

The biggest draw of the enhanced North Hoboken store is the brick oven pizza, according to General Manager Gil Wong.

Having opened the first Kings store in Bedminster with a brick oven, Area Director Joe Parisi knew it would be a success.

“This is the fourth oven we have in our stores,” Parisi said. “There will be many more in the future.”

The menu will offer eight different pizza options made fresh in nine minutes. Customers can order, walk around to shop, and pick up their pizza. There will also be a weekly special pizza that the chefs will test out.

Visitors to the opening could not stop talking about how tasty the pizzas were and even complimented the chefs.

“We’ve actually had customers in other stores ask for the manufacturer of the oven,” said Parisi, “so they could buy an oven for their home.”